BTS (방탄소년단) have just announced their upcoming tour, the ‘Love Yourself: Speak Yourself’ Tour, and I thought that this is a better time than any to finally publish this blog post. BTS, Bangtan Sonyeondan, Beyond The Scene, Bangtan Boys or whatever you address them as... I saw them. Live, in the flesh, and not just through a screen. I literally stood about 10ft away from 7 legends and it still feels so surreal.
I went to BTS’ second day at the O2 Arena (October 10th) and genuinely regret not buying tickets for the first day, too. I was planning on posting this in October but I never got around to actually finishing it. Better late than never – a line that I genuinely hardcore stan in life.
I didn't quite know how I wanted to form this post. I spent a while deciding: should it just be a diary of the day(s) and my experience, should I include tips for if anyone reading this ever decides to go to a BTS concert and, I mean, should I even write about it? I'm sure there are tons of blog posts out there with the same title and similar content. However, pre-concert, my sister and I were searching for info on the "BTS concert experience" -for the newbies, like us, who hadn't had the chance to see them yet- and we didn't manage to find anything that answered all the questions that we had. I'm hoping this will do that for anyone who needs it for their first, or next, BTS concert. So, here goes... Here's my experience of my first (and hopefully not my last) time at a BTS, and K-Pop, concert.
Tickets:
Tickets for the Love Yourself World Tour went on sale on June 1st of 2018, after the tour was announced in April. Honestly, the tickets were not cheap – prices started at £62 and went up to as much as £220 and that's only face value; resale prices were hitting the thousands for just 1 ticket, which is just completely insane. I've been to a few concerts in my time and I'll be honest, these prices were almost unjustifiable, however, this was my first K-Pop concert so maybe I was just unfamiliar with the prices because of this. And, I mean, they're BT-fricking-S so I can understand why the tickets were so expensive. Also, considering the fact they have to hire multiple back-up dancers, fly them out to wherever the concerts are held etc, it all makes sense (and was 110% worth it in the end) but I did have second thoughts about purchasing tickets. I've never bought seated tickets for a concert before as I think it's just better to stand; you have a better chance of the artist(s) noticing you, you can get good photos/videos and don't have to rely on a screen (for the most part) to show you what's going on and I just think the vibe is generally better. So, I knew that I was going for standing tickets, which retailed for £160. But £160 is still a lot of money, especially for BTS' younger audience who probably had to beg their parents to buy them tickets. I'm sure you already know the prices aren't low, but just keep that in mind if you're ever buying tickets in the future. Just think "Do you really need that Starbucks Venti Caramel Macchiato on ice with an extra shot of caramel syrup?" No, you do not. Get a Grande instead and save a few pennies for tickets. Thank me later, lmao.
My cousin, Anisa, has been a fan of BTS for a while now, so I discussed the possibility of getting tickets with her. We weren't too bothered about the date we got (either the 9th or 10th) and we honestly couldn't afford to be fussy. I kinda just accepted that it was going to be World War III because of how much the fanbase has grown over the past few years, especially with this being their first ever UK appearance.
MERCHANDISE:
Right. I work at the O2 Arena and I've never seen the merch queues as long and the general O2 area as crowded as it was the entire time I've worked here. I was working a shift on the 8th and on my way into work, I noticed that the merch trucks were out and that the merch was on display in the Merchandise store. It was all I could talk about during my shift and I went all the way out to the front of the arena during my break to stand in front of the merch store, peaking in at the merch hung up on the walls. There were groups of people (who I assume were fans) hanging around the area, some people with suitcases and their mothers, looking in at the merch and making friends with other ARMYs.
I'd just like to say how much of a blessing it was that I got tickets for the 10th as it meant that I could happily buy merch on the 9th to use on the day of my concert. I was also able to prepare properly for the day as I saw how everything went down the day before. My sister, Anju, became a fan of BTS recently and she managed to find a ticket about a week prior to the event, paying roughly £280 for her ticket. As Anisa doesn't live in London like me and my sister, we went to buy merch for the three of us. I was aware that it was going to be chaotic in the merch shops, but I didn't realise the queues were going to be as big as they were. We got to the O2 and into the merch queue at about 8:30am, after having walked past the -what seemed like- thousands of fans already waiting to get into the arena for the concert. It was crazy, but I'll talk about queues later on.
When we finally got into the merch queue, there were probably about 300-400 people already in front of us. The merch shop didn't open until 10am, so we were in for an hour and a half of impatient waiting, fans screaming and practising songs, and fan chants for the concert. It was a long wait for the merch shop, even after it opened, as it's not very big and they let people into the store in small groups. We didn't get in until about 12:15pm and so many items had sold out before we even got remotely close. I was appreciative of the fact that they constantly updated the merch display so people in the queues were aware of what was left and what was sold out. When we finally got in, I basically blurted my entire order out to the guy who was serving me. I swear, he was judging me but in a cute like "bitch, wot u doing" kinda way.
Here's a list of what I ordered and the prices of each individual item:
2x Army Bomb – £45
1x Army Bomb Case – £25
1x Zip-up Hoody – £71
2x Ver.1 T-shirt – £40
1x Poster Set – £25, and
1x Program Book – £30
In total, I ended up spending £392... only about a third of a month's wages, it's fine, no big deal *cries*.
In the queue, they gave out pieces of paper with all the merch items listed so we could choose which items we wanted and the quantity. There were limits on purchases of certain items, for example – Army Bombs were limited to 2 per customer. They ran out of the £7 shopper bags by the time I got into the merch shop, so I had to go to Tesco's to buy some bags to carry everything. If you're ever going to buy merch and you know you're going to buy a lot, it's handy to bring some bags with you to carry your stuff in. I'm definitely coming prepared next time; shit was falling out of my hands on the way to Tesco and I was terrified that someone was going to rob me of my merch and run away.
Note: I didn't end up getting robbed, I'm just paranoid lmao.
I'd recommend getting to the merch queues relatively early, as things that you will probably want (like the Love Yourself t-shirt that I really wanted) will sell out fast, due to high demand.
Also, for future reference, if you're going to buy anything, I'd say an Army Bomb is probably the best item to splash your hard-earned cash on; you'll get good use out of it at the concert, you can use it at future concerts and inside the lightstick box, you get a pack of photo-cards so I'd say it's definitely the best item to go for! But, obviously, as RM says... "do. you." and spend however much you want, support the boys!!!
QUEUING:
Like I mentioned before, I work at the O2 so I'm pretty familiar with the rules that are put in place, and one of these rules is that you are not allowed to camp out on the O2 property. As I left work on Monday, which was technically Tuesday at this point, there were a few people dotted around inside the O2 arena who clearly had no business of being there at 1 am. I'm talking 16-year-olds sitting outside Slug and Lettuce (which was closed) with backpacks and bags of food, probably preparing for the long queue waits and to get to the front. As I left the arena, there were people camping out in the bus stations, alongside some sleeping bags, food and waste that had just been discarded. The condition the stations were left in was horrendous and, as a fan, I was honestly just embarrassed. I completely understood that people were desperate to be first in line and to get barriers, we all were, but I wasn't prepared to see people completely disregard everything the O2 had said about how they wanted the event to go and the rules and regulations put into place. The O2 cleaning staff had to clean it all up and that's just not okay, some of those people I see every day when I go into work. I wasn't just mad at fans really, I was mad at the O2 security guards as well for even allowing this to happen. The rules were made clear; we were told not to camp, but they didn't do anything about it even though they said they would kick out anyone who is caught camping on the premises. Apparently, they didn't do so because some people had travelled from all over Europe and didn't buy accommodation for the time they were going to be in London. I guess it's a good thing because it meant that people had somewhere to sleep, but homeless people get kicked out of places all the time so I and many others who were going to be attending the concerts couldn't understand this. It's not the O2s responsibility to look after people, but I guess it's their job, morally. The rules that the O2 put in place were ignored and the O2 didn't know how to deal with it. And my sceptic ass still thinks that people were lying about not having accommodation or purposefully didn't buy accommodation which makes me so mad to even think about. The queueing system was a shambles on the first day and as I knew this, I started queuing at 5 am on the 10th because I knew I would've had no chance of getting close if I didn't go to the venue as early as everyone else did. I think the O2 didn't realise how popular BTS are so they weren't prepared. Maybe next time, eh?
Anisa came to stay over at ours the day before the concert but the 3 of us hardly got any sleep. I didn't sleep at all over the course of the concert days; I was running on coffee and sugary food and eventually, mid-concert, I crashed. SLEEP IS VITAL. I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THE BOYS, LOVE YOURSELF FIRST AND MAKE SURE YOU SLEEP OK? Ok.
I only live about 20 minutes away from the O2 Arena so we took a ~relatively~ quick bus journey to North Greenwich, as there were no trains running at the time. We packed a gym bag full of drinks, bottles of water and snacks to keep us going throughout the day which was a really good idea. Also, as I work in the O2, I was able to get into the O2 Arena before 9 am (which is when the general public are allowed in). This really worked in my favour as I was able to take the gym bag and stash it in my locker and keep bottles of water and a few snacks on hand for the queues. I honestly think I could've gotten to the front of the official queue but I didn't want to cause any aggro and potentially get kicked out and fired from my job or something, so I didn't do it but I really wish I did lmao. Ya girl could've gotten barrier, goddamnit.
When we got to the North Greenwich at 5-something a.m. on Wednesday 10th, there were already tons of people queuing up in what were "unofficial queues". People were running around the entire area as I think the locations of the queues kept changing, as we weren't even supposed to form any unofficial queues, and the O2 security staff were telling people to move back then come forward or whatever. It was all very confusing and it's all a bit of a blur but we somehow ended up in like the first 100 people in the unofficial queue. The O2 staff then took us to another area to form another “unofficial” queue. The people in the second unofficial queue were absolute animals; we were in that queue from about 6am-9am and, contrary to the rumours, we were allowed to enter and exit the queue as we pleased. There were railings put in place which were done in a squiggly-kind-of formation (I'm amazing at explaining things, yes, I know).
The majority of the people at the front of the queue, a lot of whom had VIP tickets, were honestly just some of the most horrible people I've ever met. I would have a pretty big head if I managed to make it to the front of the queue, but I like to think that I would try my best to not show how much pride I have. It was like being in an American TV show high school with the "popular" girls all sitting together and having that "you can't sit with us" Mean Girls attitude. A few people came to the front of the queue, begging to be let into the front because of reasons X, Y and Z and I probably wouldn't have let them in either because it's unfair, but they were just rolling their eyes and cursing people which made me so mad. People were crying because they accidentally bought fake tickets and had to try and get a last-minute ticket, the people at the front of the queue had a big enough space for each of them to lay down comfortably whilst the rest of us peasants were squashed together, ass cheek to ass cheek. A girl at the front was leaning on the railing and kept shouting at us to "sTOP MOVING THE RAILING, YOU'RE HURTING MY BACK" as if she couldn't just lay down a bit away from the railing. It honestly made me so mad, I wanted to kill her; she was so far up her own arse and I hope it's just due to lack of sleep and she's not actually just a shitty inconsiderate human being. People like that, I don't understand how you can call yourself a fan – BTS are really out here trying to spread messages about loving people and whatnot, and you're here shouting at me for being squished against the railing against my own will? Trash. I don't care how long you've been a so-called fan or how much you claim to love the boys; if you're treating people like shit, what makes you think they'd like you if you ever got the chance to meet them?
Also, because of the number of people exiting and entering the queue and the lack of a numbering system, there was no way to monitor who was actually in the queue and who just came last-minute, claiming "I was already here before" and "my friends are over there". So, our 100th-or-so spot in the queue ended up being around 200th instead which really sucks, but hey ho.
At 9 am, we were sent in groups of 10 to "walk and not run" to the official queue inside the O2 Arena. Of course, rules don't exist and people ran, which is why we ended up losing our spot in the queues. But, when we eventually got into the (finally) official queue, we were given a raffle ticket which basically meant that we were allowed to exit and enter the queue from 9 am until 5 pm (which was when we were going to be let into the concert hall. We made a few friends in the queue, played some BTS bops on some speakers and practised all the dance moves and lyrics for the concert. A security guard told us that we were the first 250 people to make it into the queue for GA Standing so we were beyond excited. This part of the day, in this queue, was really chill and honestly just flew by. We could also hear the boys doing their soundchecks which had me so excited, ahhhhh!
THE CONCERT:
As I got home from work at around 2 am on the 8th, (technically, the 9th) I was getting up at 8 am to go and buy merch on the 9th and my concert day was the 10th, I slept for a total of *drumroll* ... 1 hour and 15 minutes over the course of the 2 days. Was I sleep deprived? Heck, yeah! Do I regret not sleeping? You bet. I think I was just too excited that I physically could not sleep. I was stressed just thinking about not getting close enough to the barriers and to the boys or something just going wrong and ruining the day and my skin started breaking out so it was just a very stressful time.
Honestly, the entire day of the concert just feels like a dream to me (but mostly a nightmare). All the photos and videos I took on my phone feel like someone else's photos and videos and as if my memories aren't my own. I can't quite explain it, it just doesn't feel real to me.
After queuing for what felt like forever, it finally came to the time to enter the concert hall. The staff handed out sweets and the fan-made banners. After what felt like such a short but long wait, the doors were opened and we were let into the security-checking area, then that's when the war began; I've never run so fast in my life. I don't even run for trains, like, I will happily wait for the next one in an hour or whatever, I'm not about that running life. But, ya girl RAN. We honestly just panicked and tried to go for the least-concentrated area and managed to get to the second row from the barrier in front of the extended stage. I was pretty happy with where we were but I really wish we had gotten barrier, but I am still very grateful. I was honestly falling asleep at this point; the lack of sleep over the past 24 hours was finally hitting me. They played a ton of BTS music videos on the screens in the arena and it was so nice to see and hear a bunch of different people with different backgrounds and different languages come together and sing the boys' songs. I think the music woke me up a bit and also the realisation that I was going to see BTS' faces in the flesh in a matter of hours. The 3 hours wait went by pretty fast and I honestly feel like I can queue for anything at this point.
Then, it was finally time. It was happening. The announcement played. This was it. They were coming out. The lights came on, the music started playing and the boys rose from the ground and onto the main stage, kicking off the concert with "IDOL". The amount of screaming and pushing that began at this point is insane. I could barely focus on the performance due to the amount of pushing. I just remember my sister and a bunch of others around us, screaming "STOP PUSHING!" and it was just absolute chaos. Throughout the concert, I got pushed back and forth, left and right, up and down... IT WAS HELL. My elbows were pushed together for most of the concert and I could already feel muscle pain coming on at the beginning of the concert, plus the fact that I was sleep-deprived and desperately needed to pee just didn't help the situation.
For the most part, I enjoyed the concert, I guess. I don't remember a lot of it; I don't remember most of the VCRs, I don't remember them performing Fake Love and there's just a lot of things that I just can't recall. Perhaps it was because of how tired I was, but I was constantly distracted by the mass of pushing and shoving going on. However, what amazed me was that somehow, the people who managed to get barrier seemed to remain untouched and seemed to be having a good time. This was probably because the majority of the pushing was coming from the back and the force fizzled out as it got towards the front, as so many people were pushing back in the opposite direction. I'd say about 20 people, just from the section I was in, were pulled out of the pit due to feeling suffocated and being hurt by the crowd of fans. Some people left the concert before the boys even arrived on stage and that honestly broke my heart. I'm pretty sure BTS heard people screaming about the pushing and noticed how many people had to be removed from the pit and maybe that's why for the upcoming concerts, they've decided to make it all seated like they have in South Korea. It's so much safer and I'm so happy they're doing this, I don't think I could go through that shit again. Another thing to note, and maybe I'm lucky that I got pushed back a few rows, the stages are really high (of course, so everyone can see them) but I've never been that close to the stage at a concert before. The pain I felt in my neck from looking up at the members on the stage was so intense, I had to take a week off work. I genuinely couldn't turn my neck from side to side for so long because of how stiff it had got from the concert. I mean, it was worth it but I was in agony lmao. So, please bear this in mind if you get tickets that are really close to the stage.
The concert, for the most part, was amazing. Aside from all the pushing nonsense, I had a really great time. It was honestly a dream-come-true to be able to see the boys up close like that and I'm really grateful. They are honestly like 100000x more beautiful in real life and I didn't even know it was possible. It was nice seeing them with their natural, warm skin tones and no white-washing business. Beyond all the sweat and the lights hitting their faces and making them look shiny, they were just glowing gods.
It was a shame that Jungkook's foot was injured (poor baby) and I didn't manage to get any good photos of him as he was usually sitting on the opposite side of the stage from me, but you could tell just how passionate he is about his career by the amount of effort he put in with the choreography whilst sitting down. We stan a persevering king. Also, it was nice being able to hear him just sing because he was able to focus on his voice and truly show us just how special his beautiful voice is. Namjoon blew me away with stage presence and how comfortable he was on stage, this was the same with Hobi as well. I liked "Trivia: Just Dance" before the concert but his performance made me LOVE it, literally blew me away. Jin's vocals are crazy good, his performance of "Epiphany" was so powerful and I'm so proud of how far he has come with his voice. Tae in "The Truth Untold" was so cute because he was singing along to the entire song. Finally seeing "Singularity" live was a dream come true, the vibe is just so Tae and I loved it. He's just a beautiful angel and if I ever had doubts about who my bias is, I don't have those doubts anymore. Yoongi's rapping skills always blow me away and I love how everyone DIED when he started performing "Seesaw" (I love a singing Yoongi uwu). And Jimin, oh Jimin, "Serendipity" is one of my favourite songs EVER in the history of music and I'm so proud of him. The choreography for the song is amazing and I always forget just how much I love it. The boys are all so talented in their own little ways; I'm so proud of them all and SO beyond grateful to have been able to see them in concert. Hopefully, I'll be able to get tickets today! I'm so nervous, oh my god.
After the concert ended, I was so sleep-deprived, delirious, hungry, angry, upset, in pain and just every other negative adjective in the dictionary that I just wanted to go home, get into bed and never wake up again. I'm not even exaggerating. I was so upset that I felt like I didn't enjoy the concert due to the pushing and how tired I was and I didn't talk for pretty much the entire journey home. But, looking back at all my photos and videos, I'm so happy to have been able to see them and can't wait to (hopefully) see them again!
CONCERT TIPS:
1. Get enough sleep
I cannot stress enough how important this is. If you're standing, I understand that you want to get barriers and be able to get as close as you can, but please put your health first! I wish I had slept so maybe I would've enjoyed it more. So, yes, please sleep.
2. Carry medication with you
We took paracetamol and ibuprofen, just in case we needed it and I actually did end up taking a few pills because I could feel a headache coming on. Would definitely recommend being prepared and remembering to take some medication with you because having a headache before you even go into a concert sounds like the suckiest situation ever.
3. Tie your hair back
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. The number of girls who had their hair down was ridiculous. I constantly had people flicking their sweaty hair into my face, which is just beyond disgusting and stupid. It's going to get hot, think about the people around you and tie your hair back.
I'm sorry if most of this post doesn't make any sense. I've been writing it mostly late at night after work and I've proof-read as much as I could but I just wanted to finally publish it so, I apologise for potential rambling lol.
I want to know what your experience(s) was like. Did you stand or was your ticket seated? Did you make any ARMY friends? Would you go again? Are you buying tickets today? Let me know, I'd love to hear from my fellow ARMYs!
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.
Love,
Jakira x
